Andre had originally said he was keen to do the tiling himself - partly to save us money on the labour, but partly so he could learn a new skill. I understand - and appreciate! - his desire to do it, but I really feel that we need push things along and at least get the bathroom finished sooner rather than later. Fortunately, our finances are a lot better now than they were last year (in large part because we're no longer making scaffolding payments!). Since hiring someone is now actually a possibility, I insisted that we do it: not only will this be more efficient to bring someone in, but then Andre can focus on something else (probably building the staircase up to the loft) while the tiler does the bathroom.
So, while Andre is in New York focusing on running his architectural office, I've been leading the charge in terms of getting things organised for the tiling - and experiencing just how time-consuming that can be. I asked several tilers for quotes, but the better ones came to the flat to see firsthand at what was needed. I spent hours going over the job with them, since it's most definitely not a normal, straightforward tiling job and we're using large natural stone tiles which require more time and skill to install. Below are some colour-coded drawings that Andre put together to clarify the scope of work to the tilers, and what was going where. The blue represents limestone, and the red represents slate.
The idea is that the shower is tiled in slate, except for the floor and a ledge that wraps around the edge of the bathroom. The floor and that legde are limestone - the ledge leads to and then wraps around the shower, becoming a shelf and niche that convieniently hides the steel post that helps to support the loft. In an ideal world, of course, we would not have a steel post in the bathroom! But during demolition, we discovered an unexpected arch in the wall, at which point our structural engineers insisted on this additional steel post for extra support. But by that time, it was too late to make substantial changes to the design, so Andre basically worked around it, integrating the post into the design itself.All of this led to a rather complicated design, with lots of corners and edges - so in the end I decided to hire the tiler who had spent the most time with me reviewing the job and the design, and asking the relevant questions. This tiler, Sean, seemed knowledgable, offered lots of advice, and also seemed like he would be someone who Andre could get on well with, and work with. There's still a lot of work to do before we're ready for tiling - among other things, we have to finish building out the shower and finish waterproofing the shower and the rest of the bathroom. So there will have to be a certain amount of co-ordination between Andre and the tiler. Good thing Andre is back at the end of this week, so we can get started!
